I’ve honestly struggled being here on the Race, an American born and raised in the Christian church, to process the discrepancies with how I’ve seen the body of Christ operate in the States and how the Lord is moving here in other countries.
The American church isn’t perfect, as no church or body of believers is perfect because as individuals we are not perfect. Jesus LOVES the church in America, and I believe He is growing and changing believers in the U.S. to look and live more like Him.
God is ALIVE, people. Like in a way that shakes you awake. I feel that I have held back from sharing some stories, true God stories that testify to His power and active Presence in these nations we’ve been in, because they aren’t pretty, flowery, and easily “digestible” stories. I have been afraid of the opinions of man instead of fearing God and being obedient to be generous with what is happening right before my eyes. I refuse to do that any longer. I have repented to the Lord for trying to put Him in a more easily received package, and I want to apologize to you all for not being true to the reality I’m living in that I have promised to share with you.
Even if you have differing opinions or struggle with some stories I share, that’s okay. Take that to the Holy Spirit, and He will lead you to understanding and truth as is promised in John 14:26. AND talk to me about your experience with the Lord and what He’s taught you about these things!
I have seen a LOT on the Race. I have seen the Lord heal physical bodies before my eyes. I have felt the oppression and heaviness of the presence of spirits that are of darkness and NOT of the Light of the Lord. I will share those stories because I want you to be awakened to what I have been awakened to. The American church, and I think American people in general, have a spiritual sleepiness that you may not realize you have been lulled into until you really get outside the bubble of the States. It is a sleepiness that leads to selfishness, apathy, and being stagnant.
I want to share a story with you from India this past month. I’ve had more time here in Nepal to write, so I’m backtracking to last month somewhat.
Ministry last month was intense. We read in the Gospels about how when people heard Jesus was coming to town, they thronged together just for the chance to touch him or ask him for prayer out of desperation. After the evening program we would have with the kids in the village church, many times people who lived in the villages and needed prayer would come to us. This one particular night, a woman entered the back of the church, clearly in physical pain. She was crying, and the translator told us she said she had walked 4 kilometers to the church for prayer. She had just been stung by a scorpion and now was feeling pain shooting up to her hip. I looked at my team, and we began to gather around her. We had been praying for healing in many villages before this one, and we had not seen God move in immediately to heal people yet. Still, we knew God is able to heal the very bodies He knit together, and His timing is perfect.
When Jesus calls his disciples in Matthew 10:8: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” , I believe that is a call for me and for every disciple of Jesus today. Some say that the miracles and wonders done in Jesus’ day were only for that time. I disagree. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He healed and delivered many while He was present physically in the earth. Why would He stop doing that type of ministry after He was raised from the dead and ascended back to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father? He proclaimed that WE would do even greater works than He did! (John 14:12)
And how? Because we are HIS BODY. Jesus is no longer here physically, but He said that it was better for Him to go away so that the Holy Spirit would come. Jesus Himself was led by the Holy Spirit to do the will of the Father, and we are now filled with the same Spirit in order to carry on the ministry of Jesus. We truly are His hands and feet here on earth, and His Holy Spirit moves through us—simple, broken, human vessels—to heal and deliver and set people free. This Christian life is to be connected to Jesus and make Him known, and it is to carry on His ministry. Jesus still sees those who are sick and captive to evil spirits and separated from Him, and He has compassion on them! He fills US with His heart and that compassion so that WE are moved in His stead to reach out and touch them, heal them, set them free by His authority, and offer hope and eternal, abundant life in Him.
So in this instance, we as simple (and nervous!) vessels of the Holy Spirit prayed for this woman’s healing. We had to trust that her faith in Jesus to heal was there (“daughter, your faith has made you well..” -Mark 5:34) and that the Holy Spirit would move—for the good of this woman and for the glory of God. We had to be bold, as we are constantly learning to do, and trust that we shouldn’t fear that God will be doubted or that He won’t move. He will defend Himself and His own glory. He is good, and He works in mysterious ways. In faith, we laid hands on her body and asked that the Holy Spirit would eliminate the poison from her body and take away any pain.
We prayed about 4 times in a row, asking if the pain improved at all or what she was feeling, and each time the woman said the pain felt like it was lessening and descending back down her leg to the sting site underneath her toes. Finally, the woman said that the pain was only at the site where the scorpion had stung her. She looked up at us with tear-stained cheeks, and she was beaming! She thanked us several times, and we were able to pray over her after God had done this miraculous thing! We believe she was Hindu, but we prayed that this miracle would point her to the One True Living God, and that she would see the truth that Jesus is the only way to relationship with God and being rescued from the darkness of this world.
It was difficult for me and my team to process this. Very few of us had grown up being taught that the Holy Spirit still moves very powerfully today. Some of us were overjoyed, some of us skeptical. We were able to talk through what had happened and whether we were struggling with the reality of this woman’s healing or not, we all could agree that it was for the glory of God. We prayed that she would tell so many others that she had been healed by the power of Jesus. She left, and before we knew it, there were many more people coming into the church to be prayed over. I now understand a little more about the disciples asking Jesus all the time when they would get food… It was very draining in every way to pray for so many people and hear about their struggles and the pain they had experienced in this life. And yet, we were able to come together as a team in these moments, exhausted as we were, to love these Indian people and pray they would come to faith in Jesus.
This is just one story of many all across my squad of the mighty ways the Lord is moving in each country we visit. Ministry looks different month to month, but we are learning to be ready in any moment to be led by the Spirit to meet the needs of people around us.
Praise God for His majesty in allowing us to co-labor with Him and for filling us with His Spirit to continue the work of Jesus’ ministry and radically change lives. This is one BIG miracle we saw happen with our own eyes among so many small miracles the Lord is performing each day. He is filling us with awe at how alive and active He is, which is so ironic being in countries where people worship so many gods, gods who don’t hear or see or desire to know them. Jesus is the reality we are praying they see in and through us.
Thank you for listening to my story and following my journey. I am only a witness to the Gospel of Jesus springing up around the world and the beautiful ways He is touching lives and loving them so well.
